James Brown Funeral, December 30, 2006

Speech of Reverend Al Sharpton

"We used to ride around somewhere between Beech Island and Bamberg. And he'd tell me, Reverend, I was born out in these woods. He said "I shined shoes on Broad Street." he said, "but the reason I'm not bitter is god blessed me and he gave me a talent. And I didn't let anyone tell me how to use my talent. They called me names. They persecuted me. They set me up. They framed me. They locked me up. But they couldn't lock me down." there was a god. There was a god that was with me all the way. And he said "no matter what, I know that there's a god, and I believe in god, and I believe god believes in me." So he sung his song and he danced his dance, but he wasn't just singing for himself. He sung for us. He danced for us. He screamed for us. "

"Last thing he told me about a week ago, Ms. Hogan called me and said, Reverend Sharpton, Mr. Brown is trying to reach you. And we talked about every week. I sometimes would wait till the next day to call, because you need a good half hour to put aside to talk to James Brown. You never could cut him ff. He would just keep talking. But Mr. Bobby called me about two hours later and said, you need to call him, he wants to talk to you. It was the last conversation we had. He said to me, Reverend, he said, "I've been watching you on the news. I want you to keep fighting for justice. But I want you to tell people to love one another. I want you to fight to lift the standards back." He said, "What happened to us that we are now celebrating from being down? What happened we went from saying I'm black and I'm proud to calling each other niggers and ho's and bitches?" He said, "I sung people up and now they're singing people down, and we need to change the music."

He said, "I want you to stay with your teacher, Reverend Jackson, don't get so big headed you can't stay with your teacher, y'all got to clean it up." Then he said to me, "Reverend, have you talked to Michael?" I said, "no, I think he's out of the country." He said, "Tell him I love Michael. Tell him don't worry about coming home. They always scandalize those that have the talent. But tell him we need to clean up the music and I want Michael and all of those that imitated me to come back and lift the music back to where children and their grand mommas can sit and listen to the music together."

"And even though many stars you helped and even though he knows they're going to criticize him, Michael said, he doesn't care what they say. Michael came for you today, Mr. Brown. Come on up, Michael. Come up here. I don't care what the media says tonight. James Brown wanted Michael Jackson with him here today. Brothers and sisters, as I bring the family and then Mr. Bobby and then we will conclude the eulogy, I think it is only appropriate, based on my last conversation, we hear some words of expression from Michael Jackson.

MICHAEL JACKSON:
“Hello. What I'm going to say is brief but to the point. James Brown is my greatest inspiration. Ever since I was a small child, no more than like 6 years old, my mother would wake me, no matter what time it was, if I was sleeping, no matter what I was doing, to watch the television to see the master at work. And when I saw him move, I was mesmerized. I've never seen a performer perform like James Brown. And right then and there, I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life because of James Brown.[fans scream] I love you. But James Brown, I shall miss you and I love you so much. And thank you for everything. God bless you. And I love you"